" I don't want your hope..."

I mentioned her in passing before in the comments section, the girl from Sweden. I think it is about time I gave her another venue, even one as small as mine, to express her thoughts. Because her thoughts should be ours.

I also mentioned before the idea that we are in a period of mass extinction, as did Greta in her talk. This second video examines a world of declining insect populations. You may have heard of the concern about bee populations declining. They aren't the only ones. And, yes, it does matter. That is, if you are fond of food.

Take a moment and listen...

Treason

Espionage, they call it the second oldest profession in the world. And I suspect that, like the first, it will never go away. Spying for one's country is one thing, but spying for a foreign power against one's country is another. It's called treason, and would be considered a high crime or misdemeanor. Don't ask me why that phrase popped into my head. I have an interesting, and rather depressing I would say, video today from the History channel about some famous spies who betrayed America. It is worth watching, though, to remind us of what it looks like and how it can happen.

One of the common denominators in all of those cases was that so many people really didn't believe that the guilty person would have done what they did, or that it could happen at that level of government. But greed, for one thing, is a huge motivating factor. The video is long, but never boring.

A Slice of Minnesota

I thought it might be time for another post on my fair state. As many of you know we can get, ummm, rather cold in the winter. This has led to some rather unusual ways of dealing with our propensity to hibernate until spring. It has become a tradition to brave the elements on New Year's Day by jumping into what is really, literally, ice cold water. We call it the Polar Plunge. I know, some might find it, well, odd, but you just gotta think outside the box.

I ran across a video from this year's plunge on Lake Minnetonka. It does appear that we have dragged some poor, innocent visitors from foreign lands into our crazy world. But they took it in stride and with good humor.

I must say that some of those people can swim quite quickly.

Happy New Year Everyone!